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Christmas and holiday season

Season’s Greetings

December 25, 2022 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

We wish all our friends, supporters, and followers a Happy Holiday Season!

May these days be filled with moments of peace and joy and laughter. We are excited to see you back in the new year.

Thank you for being part of our CaliforniaGermans community!

Have a fabulous start into 2023!

Happy Holidays – Frohe Weihnachten & Happy New Year – Guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

CaliforniaGermans

Filed Under: Life in California, News Tagged With: Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, German Traditions, Happy New Year, Holidays

German Christmas Carol Service in SoCal

December 3, 2022 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

Christmas Carol Service 2022

It’s become a California holiday tradition

Christmas Carol Service at St. Luke’s Lutheran

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in La Mesa is holding a
German Christmas Carol Service on Sunday, 18 December 2022 at 7:00 pm. 
All are invited.

Address:

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
5150 Wilson Street
La Mesa, CA 92942
www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org

Here is how to get there: Map

Weihnachtsmesse am 18. Dezember um 18:00 Uhr

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in La Mesa hält am 18. Dezember 2022
(Sonntag) um 19.00 Uhr wieder einen deutschsprachigen
Weihnachtsgottesdienst. Wie in vorigen Jahren besteht die
Gottesdienstordnung hauptsächlich aus Lesungen und Liedern, die die
Weihnachtsgeschichte erzählen.  Nach dem Gottesdienst gibt es kleine
Erfrischungen.

Sie und Ihre Familie, Freunde, Gemeinde- und Vereinsmitglieder,
Studenten/innen, und Schüler/innen, usw. sind herzlich eingeladen.

Die Adresse der Kirche ist:

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
5150 Wilson Street
La Mesa, CA 92942
www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org

Einen Fahrplan zur Kirche findet man per diesen Link:

http://www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org/maps.php

Filed Under: German Traditions in CA, Life in California, News Tagged With: California, CaliforniaGermans, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, Christmas carols, German Christmas Carol Service in California, Germans in California, Holiday events, holiday season, Weihnachten

Weihnachtsgottesdienst 2021

December 11, 2021 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in La Mesa is holding a German Christmas Carol Service on Sunday, 19 December 2021 at 7:00 pm.  


The Service will consist of readings of the Scripture and songs that retell the story of Christmas. After the Service please join the community for light refreshments.

All are invited.

Church’s Address:

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
5150 Wilson Street
La Mesa, CA 92942
www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org

Please find driving directions to the church via this link: http://www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org/maps.php

————————————————-

Luke’s Lutheran Church in La Mesa hält am 19. Dezember 2021 (Sonntag) um 19.00 Uhr wieder einen deutschsprachigen Weihnachtsgottesdienst.

Wie in vorigen Jahren besteht die Gottesdienstordnung hauptsächlich aus Lesungen und Liedern, die die 
Weihnachtsgeschichte erzählen.  Nach dem Gottesdienst gibt es kleine Erfrischungen.

Sie und Ihre Familie, Freunde, Gemeinde- und Vereinsmitglieder, Studenten/innen, und Schüler/innen, usw. sind herzlich eingeladen.

Die Adresse der Kirche ist:

St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
5150 Wilson Street
La Mesa, CA 92942
www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org

Einen Fahrplan zur Kirche findet man per diesen Link: http://www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org/maps.php

Filed Under: Attractions & Events, Life in California Tagged With: Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, German Christmas Carol Service in California

Happy Holidays!

December 24, 2020 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Image: CaliforniaGermans

Filed Under: Culture, News Tagged With: Christmas and holiday season, Christmas recipe, holiday recipes, Holidays

Zimt Bakery ships Christmas Plätzchen in California

December 12, 2020 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

No time to bake “Weihnachtsplätzchen”? No problem. Let Zimt Bakery take care of it this year!

The love for baking and fond memories of her Oma Doris from Stuttgart made Alina Tompert launch Zimt Bakery in 2020 during the pandemic. Growing up in California she happily joined her mom in the yearly family tradition of backing “Plätzchen” during Christmas season from an early age on. However, she was particularly impressed by the package of Christmas Cookies that her Oma Doris sent from Germany each year for the holidays. It contained an assortment of about 20 beautiful, unique, lovingly crafted “Guadsle” (the Swabian expression for cookies).

Alina Trompert - Zimt Bakery

After her grandma’s passing, Alina turned to baking from the recipes that she inherited from Oma Doris: “I am thrilled to present the lineup of Zimt Guadsle for the traditional holiday baking, and my own mash-up of modern flavors in our seasonal line up of Plätzchen”.

Zimt Bakery specializes in Plätzchen and Guadsle, the former being Zimt’s modern seasonal take and the latter being Zimt’s traditional holiday cookies rooted in Oma Doris’ recipes. Over the holidays, Zimt Bakery will offer also homemade Lebkuchen Hearts which are customizable with a name or message. And even our furry friends can join in the delight of freshly baked cookies. Zimt Bakery also makes Plätzchen for Paws! 

[Read more…] about Zimt Bakery ships Christmas Plätzchen in California

Filed Under: German Foods & Markets, Life in California, News Tagged With: Alina Trompert, California, Christmas and holiday season, Christmas cookies, German Bakery, holiday baking, Zimt Bakery

Xmas Baking Recipe: Christmas Rum Cake à la Merrill Lyew Emanuel

November 30, 2017 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

Christmas Rum Cake

This is the recipe for a delicious rum cake that our CaliforniaGermans contributor Merrill grew up with. It’s a treasured recipe from his mother, who used to make many smaller cakes from this recipe instead of one big one. It stayed a tradition for him and his family and every holiday season they are the delight of everyone in his family.

Enjoy!

LIST OF INGREDIENTS:

1. 1/2 Pound Cake Flour
2. 1/2 Pound Sugar
3. 1/2 Pound Butter
4. 5 Eggs Separate the yolks from the egg white
5. 1/2 Cup Evaporated milk
6. 2 Tea Spoon Baking Powder
7. 1 Tea Spoon Vanilla
8. 1/8 Tea Spoon Salt
9. 3 Table Spoon Burned Sugar (see procedure)
10. 3 Table Spoon Raisins and cut Prunes soaked in Rum for several weeks
11. 1/3 Cup Chopped Walnuts
12. 1/4 Cup Red Cherries cut into Halves
13. 1/4 Cup Green Cherries cut into Halves
14. 1/3 Cup Dark Beer
15. 1/8 Tea Spoon Grinded Nutmeg
16. 2 Table Spoon Orange Juice
17. 1 Orange Skin Grated orange peel

PROCEDURE:

STEP #1: Burn the 3 tablespoons sugar to a dark syrup then add 1 tablespoon of water, keep to a thick consistency. Let it cool down.

STEP #2: Mix butter with sugar, add dark syrup from STEP #1, grated orange peel, vanilla, nutmeg, orange juice. Add egg yolks one at a time. Add evaporated milk little by little.

STEP #3: Strain flour, baking powder, and salt together in separate bowl and add to the batter.

STEP #4: Add the cherries, prunes, chopped walnuts.

STEP #5: Whip the egg white apart and add to the batter at low speed. Add the dark beer.

STEP #6: Pour into a buttered 9-inch mold.

STEP #7: Bake at 350 ° F for around one hour

Bon Appétit!

Image: Pixabay.com
———————————————————————————————–——————–

Merrill Lyew EmanuelAs a recent retiree, Merrill Lyew Emanuel now has time for his old and new hobbies. Within his hobbies are writing fan fiction in German, solving chess puzzles, repairing things at home that are not broken, doing a little bit of social media, reading every and anything that looks like a book, traveling a little, and taking snapshots with his mirrorless camera.

Having lived in Germany, Costa Rica and the USA, he is fluent in the languages of these countries. As a professional geographer he traveled profusely throughout Latin America. He is living in Southern California for over thirty years. Find more of his work at http://www.merrillius.net


.

Filed Under: German Foods & Markets, German Traditions in CA Tagged With: baking recipe, Christmas and holiday season, holiday baking, Holidays, Merrill Lyew Emanuel

THE 4TH ADVENT IS HERE AND CHRISTMAS EVE IS NEAR!

December 23, 2012 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

Christmas is near – How about a special cookie treat for Santa  !

cookies-210718_1920Have you started your Christmas Bakery yet? If not, here is a great recipe to delight your family and friends with some German Hazelnut Macaroons. They are easy to make and taste  heavenly delicious !

German Christmas Cookies: Hazelnut Macaroons

(Recipe by our guest author Gabriele Utz)

 German Christmas Cookies: Hazelnut Macaroons

German Christmas cookies Hazelnut Macaroons (in German Haselnussmakronen) is a classic German recipe for the Holiday season and for Christmas. Germany is known for its unique and delicious Christmas Bakery. If you have not made any German Christmas cookies before, this is a good starter cookie as it is very easy to make. Happy Baking!

Ingredients German Christmas Cookies
4 egg white
200 g sugar
200 g ground hazelnuts or hazelnut flour
hazelnuts cut in half for decoration
1 hint of cinnamon
2 tbsp flour for dusting
30 wafers( very thin round piece of unleavened bread) Purchase the wafers online

Baking Instructions German Christmas Cookies
– Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
– Beat egg white with pinch of salt very firm (so firm that if you cut it with the knife you would see the cut!)
– Add sugar; sieve it over the firm egg white and carefully mix it.
– Then add the hazelnuts and cinnamon and mix it carefully. If you cannot get ground hazelnuts or hazelnut flour, you can use a coffee grinder to grind them.
– Dust a baking tray with flour.
– Place on each wafer with 2 teaspoons a small amount of hazelnut batter and place in the middle one half of a hazelnut.
– Bake them for 10-15 minutes depending on the oven. Check frequently, you don’t want the wafers become brown.

Tip
If you want you can bake them without the wafers too. Instead using wafers for the bottom you can use melted chocolate and dip the bottoms of the baked macaroons in it briefly.

Article Source: MyBestGermanRecipes.com

—————————————————————————————————————–        ABOUT

MyBestGermanRecipes.comMyBestGermanRecipes is the creation of Gabriele Utz. Interested in cooking and baking ever since she can think of she now has turned her passion into reality, and has started an online cookbook with authentic German recipes in 2010. The website offers more than 300 original German recipes.
website | Twitter | Facebook

——————————————————————————————————————————
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Filed Under: German Cooking & Baking, German Foods & Markets Tagged With: 4th Advent, Baking, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, Christmas cookies, hazelnut macaroons

Christmas Bakery – Peffernüsse, a German Christmas Recipe

December 2, 2012 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

English: Christmas cookies and decoration.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The First Advent Sunday is today and Christmas season has officially started. Traditionally the four weeks of Advent are represented by four candles on an Advent wreath. The first one will get lit today and then it’s only four more weeks until Christmas eve is here!

Christmas cookies are a must for this festive holiday season. So we thought of starting you out with a scrumptious recipe for traditional “Peffernüsse” by our guest author Gabriele Utz of MyBestGermanRecipes. She  will share with us one of her favorite recipes on each of the four Advent Sundays plus a special one for New Year‘s Eve. Give it a try and fill your home with the sweet scents of gingerbread spices!

Happy First of Advent!

GERMAN PFEFFERNÜSSE 

(by Gabriele Utz, MyBestGermanRecipes.com)
.

This is an authentic German Pfeffernusse recipe as you would find in Germany. German Pfeffernusse are traditional Christmas cookies and very popular. You can find them in any bakery or supermarket in Germany. Get some German tradition into your home with this recipe. The ingredient Hirschhornsalz, in English Hartshorn or Ammonium Carbonate, is a traditional Gingerbread (Lebkuchen) ingredient since hundreds of years and was originally taken from deer’s antlers. It makes the dough raise but not in height, it makes it wider. Happy Baking!

Pfeffernuesse

Ingredients (20 pieces) German Pfeffernusse
125 honey
50 g sugar
2 tbsp butter
250 g flour (whole grain if you like)
1/2 tsp Hirschhornsalz (Ammonium Carbonate) – Find here the German original or an American product:
Ammonium Carbonate (Baker’s Ammonia) 2.7 oz
1 egg
2 tsp ginger bread spice – Edora Lebkuchen Gewurz (Gingerbread Spices) 1 – .05oz Package
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 pinch salt
125 g powdered sugar
1 tbsp rum

Baking Instructions German Pfeffernusse 
– Heat butter, honey and sugar and melt it.
– Mix flour, egg, Hirschhornsalz and spices, add honey dough and knead it  thoroughly with knead hooks.
– Form balls out of the dough and bake them on 190 C or 375 F for 12 minutes; bake the next portion only for 10 minutes.
– Make the glaze out of powdered sugar and rum and a bit of water.
– Spread glaze over the cooled off cookies and let them dry.
– Keep them at least 2 days in a tin box with a piece of bread or a piece of apple, so they get soft.
If you like you can make  a dark chocolate glaze and spread it on half of the cookies, and have the other half white.

Recipe Article Source:
MyBestGermanRecipes.com
 
—————————————————————————————————-

ABOUT

MyBestGermanRecipes.comMyBestGermanRecipes is the creation of Gabriele Utz. Interested in cooking and baking ever since she can think of she now has turned her passion into reality, and has started an online cookbook with authentic German recipes in 2010. The website offers more than 300 original German recipes. 
website | Twitter | Facebook
—————————————————————————————————-
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Filed Under: Culture, German Cooking & Baking, German Foods & Markets, LifeStyle Tagged With: advent, Advent Sunday, Ammonium Carbonate, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, Christmas cookies, Erster Advent, First Advent, Gingerbread, Lebkuchen

‘Adventzeit’ and Christmas Season

November 30, 2012 by Cornelia 1 Comment

die-schoensten-Christkindlm1Christmas Season officially starts on the First Advent in Germany. Since this year that day is actually on December 2nd,  children will also have already opened their second door on their Advent Calendars, a beloved holiday tradition that marks down the days to the highly anticipated Christmas Eve (Heiligabend).

The First Advent, when in November,  often marks also the first day of the Christmas Markets (Christkindlmarkt) which are then open until December 24, the ‘Heiligabend’. For the next few weeks visitors will enjoy hot and scented  Gluehwein, warm roasted chestnuts and all kinds of Lebkuchen (a variety of Gingerbreads ) while listening to festive Advent music and walking along little booths selling a great variety of Christmas decorations,  the real attraction for young and old.  Beautifully handcrafted wooden manger scenes (Holzkrippen) are usually also on display at bigger Christkindl Markets, and Saint Nikolaus is walking the streets to great little children.

Delicious Christmas Favorites for the Holidays

To ring in the holidays for everyone here in California, and fill your home with the delicious fragrance of freshly baked Christmas cookies, we have invited guest author Gabriele Utz, founder of MyBestGermanRecipe.com, to share some of her favorite German holiday recipes with us.

Gabriele, born and raised in Germany, lives with her family in Los Angeles and has always been interested in cooking and baking. After her move to L.A. she thoroughly missed German food, and thinking that other fellow ex-pats might feel the same, she founded MyBestGermanRecipes.com in 2010. The website has now more then 300 original recipes for German food lovers!

Look out for a new holiday recipe on each Advent Sunday. A special  “Silvester Rezept” will await you for New Year’s eve!

Christmas Markets and Events around California

Some German Christmas events around California are happening tomorrow (December 1st) to welcome the holiday season. Check out our Event Calendar for location and time.

christmas ornament on treeHave a wonderful Holiday Season !

_____________________________________________________

Additional Reading:

Happy First Advent – Einläuten der Weihnachtszeit

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-cambria-christmas-mart-20121128,0,107035.photogallery

http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=19605

http://www.kcet.org/shows/european_christmas_markets/european-christmas-markets.html

Related articles
  • Christmas Markets: Europe’s Annual Holiday Markets Open To The Public (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)

Filed Under: Culture, German Festivals, Life in California Tagged With: advent, Advent Sunday, Christkindl Markets, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, Christmas market, Gingerbread, Lebkuchen, Saint Nicholas

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

November 21, 2012 by Cornelia Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving in the USA is not only a national holiday that commemorates the first ‘Thanksgiving’ ever celebrated in America by the Pilgrims,  but also a most loved holiday for families all over the United State to reunite, come together and share a festive meal together.  Often several generations of a family meet up in the kitchen and prepare the traditional turkey feast together.

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November and traditionally marks also the start of Christmas shopping.

While we have a similar day in Germany, called ‘Erntedankfest’ , it doesn’t have the festive character it has here in the USA. It is also not a national holiday and while the church suggests to observe the day on the first Sunday in October, it is not an official church holiday either. Outside the bigger cities in smaller towns and villages it is usually custom that a procession follows a special ‘Erntedank’ church service that celebrates the rich harvest of the year.

In Germany Christmas season traditionally starts with the First Advent, even though St. Martins Day (Nov. 11) with its lantern parades already sets the spirit for the festivities ahead.

History of Thanksgiving (video clip)

Thanksgiving by the Numbers – Infographic (History Channel)

  • US Thanksgiving Weekend: Family Celebrations, Then Holiday Shopping (voanews.com)

Filed Under: Life in California Tagged With: Christmas and holiday season, Erntedank, Germany, Thanksgiving, USA

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